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Todd Pletcher, trainer for Always Dreaming, talks about the Kentucky Derby winner's mechanics and how he expects the three-year-old to bounce back for Saturday's Preakness Stakes.

(Published Thursday, May 18, 2017)

Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming and Preakness winner Cloud Computing will skip the Belmont Stakes, leaving the final leg of the Triple Crown without the winners of the first two races.

Trainer Chad Brown confirmed Sunday that Cloud Computing would skip the 1½-mile Belmont on June 10, which had been expected.

And Always Dreaming's trainer, Todd Pletcher, has said the 3-year-old colt will be pointed toward either the $600,000 Jim Dandy at Saratoga on July 29 or the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth on July 30, according to the Daily Racing Form.

Brown will still have a starter in the $1.5 million race: Twisted Tom, who won the Federico Tesio on April 22. Because Twisted Tom wasn't already nominated to the Triple Crown series, it will cost $75,000 to get him in the race. He will try to become the third gelding in history to win.